Part of that afternoon included Lois being interviewed by our local L&H TV host, John Gallos. Questions were welcomed from the audience, and I remember someone asked what Stan’s favorite meal was. Lois responded “Liver and onions WITH BACON.” Of course, when we all dined later, I covertly ordered liver and onions WITH BACON.

With the out-of-towners on their way home by Monday, we were able to give Lois and Tony a cooks tour of some local sites. Tony was a magic buff, so a visit to Twin Cities Magic and Costume was a must. This is a magic store like no other and serves the whole country with magic supplies. Tony was in seventh heaven!

By an odd coincidence, the renown Walker Art Center in Minneapolis was screening a special program on Monday evening. It was featuring two films on the Library of Congress’ important films list: DOCTOR STRANGELOVE and BIG BUSINESS. I called the Walker and inquired if they would have any interest in having Stan Laurel’s daughter say a few words before the screening. They replied with an enthusiastic “Yes!” and told us to “be here by 7:30.” Complications and traffic found us arriving mere moments before the appointed time! I dropped everyone off at the stage entrance and Lois was wisked away to meet the evening’s emcee while I parked the car. Racing in I discovered that the MC was none other than Michael Rabe! Tony, Merrie and I left Lois in his capable hands and went off to find a seat (once again in the back row, this time in a “stadium-seating” type auditorium in an ere before stadium seating!).

Rabe made opening remarks to the crowd, then introduced the evening’s surprise guest, Lois. She was welcomed with warm applause. Rabe conducted a nice interview, took a few questions from the audience. She was stuck for an answer on one question, so plaintively called out “Tony-y-y” and an English-accented voice replied from the darkness with the answer. Another question left her stumped, and a cry to Tony didn’t help, but I’m tickled to tell you that I was able to give the correct response from our seats at the back of the room. At that point, host Rabe thought it wise to tell the audience that the disembodied voices wafting from the cheap seats was Lois’ husband and the president of the local L&H club!

With the interview over, the program began and Lois was ushered to her seat beside us. A beautiful 35mm print of BIG BUSINESS was met with little response…initially. After all, the “artsy” crowd was there to see the feature attraction, DOCTOR STRANGELOVE, and not low comedy. HOWEVER, soon there were titters in the audience. Then snickers. Then chuckles. And before long, outright guffaws! By the time Fin lit his cigar at the end of BIG BUSINESS, the crowd was in hysterics! And, again, there I was sitting right next to Stan Laurel’s daughter! Having that experience was unforgetable!

We snuck out of “How I learned to love the bomb” knowing that all the fun would have to come to an end the next morning as Lois and Tony would be heading back to the warmth of Southern California. We said our farewells on Tuesday morning at the airline gate (remember when you could stay with your loved ones until they actually boarded the plane?). With the extended weekend over, it was time to get back to the usual business, but that magical time will live on for me…and hopefully for the many others who had an opportunity to share in it…for years and years to come!

First, the temperatures: The late winter of ‘96 was one of the coldest on record, and for Minnesota! We had had a mild February, so all of the snow had melted, which made the sub-zero temperatures during the anniversary weekend seem even colder than they were!

Tony and Lois Laurel Hawes had no idea of what they were in for! Fortunately, they only had to endure the outdoors for brief periods, hurrying from warm buildings into warmed-up vehicles and back into warm buildings. While you had fogotten your credit card and underwear, Tony was unprepared for the bitter cold in the “socks” department. Being used to the California climate, Tony’s hosiery was very light weight. One of the first orders of business was to visit the local WalMart so Tony could buy thermal stockings!

We had a bit of a media blitz to publicize our open-to-the-public 35mm screening that weekend. Lois appeared on local radio and TV, including Minnesota Public Radio, whose host, Michael Rabe, was the son of an old friend of Stan Laurel. John Rabe was a close friend of L&H’s biographer, Dr. John McCabe, and one of the organizers of the Detroit Dancing Cuckoos tent. While Tony and I sat patiently in MPR’s lobby waiting for Lois, Michael interviewed her for use on that day’s edition of the nationally syndicated ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Not knowing exactly when the interview would air, it was only by dumb luck that I happened to hear the completed interview late that afternoon. Michael used sound clips of an interview his father had conducted with Stan many years earlier. A highlight to the piece was when Michael played an archival question from his father which elicited a big laugh from Stan…you know, that great laugh Stan could have, and then intercutting the same question, posed by Michael to Lois, and Lois reacting with the identical “Laurel” laugh. Pure joy! My big regret is that no one in town for the weekend got to hear the piece, and I was not able to get a copy of it from MPR. (It seems Michael Rabe was reluctant to let copies of his father’s Stan Laurel material out, even if it was only short snipettes!)

The publicity certainly worked. As you pointed out, the 400-seat theatre was sold out. (We only wish we could have forseen the response and planned and advertised a second show. Ah, the down side of “playing it safe” when doing a public Sons event.) Block-Heads has a long history of presenting some interesting film programs, and the 30th anniversary show was no exception. Our former Grand Sheik and No. One Hal Roach expert Dick Bann provided the newly-restored original soundtrack HABEAS CORPUS. Scott and Jan MacGillivray brought their Kodachrome print of TREE IN A TEST TUBE, and Lois and Tony brought THAT’S THAT, which was the second time Block-Heads had the priveledge of screening the rarity. The surprize item was the home movie footage of Babe Hardy with Guy Kibee (and Douglas Dumbrille, I believe) on a trip to view the construction of the Boulder (now Hoover) Dam. What a treat!!!